Day: Jun 12, 2018

What to do when somebody you know really well is confused over their national identity

When a person’s identity becomes a thing of confusion to you because of their conflicting words, then you immediately lose all respect for them. An example of this scenario would be: let’s say, people are talking at length with you about the country they are from and how great it is there but as you keep listening to them you begin to quietly realize that they are not familiar with the ways of the country they claim to be from because that place is one of your favorite holiday destinations in the world. When a person’s core values rather obviously clash with their country’s core values then it begs this question: can that person typically be from that country? The answer to that should be no; they should typically be from a country whose values match theirs and they should really be upfront about that.

Why not actually say that you do not feel at home where you were born because life can be fraught with challenges. But it’s hard to expect chances of that happening when you know them but they just open their mouth and begin to lie. It is probably to hide the conflict with identity they experience because of possible reasons such as embarrassment, humiliation and so on. It is so hard to trust people like that the next time that they open their mouth about the experiences they regularly have in their country. The best that one can do in moments like that is just listen attentively, be assertive over your experiences with the country yourself (if you don’t, then just read and prep yourself for next time!) with a smile plastered across your face and also nod to show that you are indeed happy to have this conversation with them because you know them so well.